Also of course cops on foot had no radios and radios in patrol cars
> were rare. The film "The Naked City" (1948) shows a detective going
> into a dangerous situation by himself since HQ had no way to reach
> him. The suspect escaped, and it was slow spreading the alarm to the
> beat cops to give chase; they blew whistles to alert each other.
> Also, back then cops liberally used their fists. (Although apparently
> back then the allowed use of fists and nightsticks reduced use of the > gun.)
I remember seeing police call boxes on light poles in many cities. Also, I used to hear the Los Angeles police dispatch on the "police band" right above the AM broadcast band. I suspect this was a one way dispatch to the cars and the officers would go to a call box when they needed to talk back to the dispatcher.
Harold